QUEEN'S COUNSEL are certain barristers who receive from her majesty a patent giving them preandience over their brethren, and but for which they would rank only according to seniority of their standing as barristers. The advantage of appointing queen's counsel is this, that it enables the most able or successful counsel to take preced ence of those of the same, or longer standing, and to take the chief conduct of causes. In practice, there are almost invariably two counsel engaged on each side, calied a leader and a junior, and the leader is generally a queen's counsel, and the junior is not. The appointment is made by the crown, on the nomination of the lord-chancellor. The practice of appointing crown counsel is adopted in Ireland, and also in Scotland. In the courts of chancery in England, it was usual for a queen's counsel to confine himself to a particular vice-chancellor's court, or to that of the master of the rolls, so that his clients might thus reckon on his attendance there; and when he went into another court, he required an addition to his fee. . In the common-law courts, however, thiS arrangement was impracticable, and had never been adopted. It is sometimes popularly
believed that the appointpent of Queen's counsel entitles the counsel to a salary from. the croft; but this is a Mistake, excelyloas to the attorney and solicitor-general. When a queen's counsel is engaged in a criminal case against the crown, as, for example, to defend a prisoner, he requires to get special license to do so from the crown, which is always given, as a matter of course, on payment of a. small fee. In courts of law and equity, a queen's counsel is entitled to preaudience over all other counsel, except those who were appointed queen's counsel before him. A queen's counsel has preaudience over all sergeants-at-law, though many of the latter obtain patents of precedence, which also make them in effect queen's counsel, as well as sergeants, and prevent them being displaced by those who. come after them. The order of sergeants-at-taw is much more ancient than that of queen's counsel, though now it is in point of rank inferior.- The practice of appointing queen's counsel is not older than the time of sir Francis Bacon, who was the first appointed.